Our Picks for
Trans Young Adult Fiction

Five top novels
for young adult -- and not-so-young adult -- readers
looking for stories about the lives of young trans
people

BY Michelle Garcia

December 26 2007 1:00 AM ET

The National
Center for Transgender Equality estimates there are between
750,000 and 3 million transgender people in the U.S. And as
Barbara Walters showed recently in a 20/20
story last spring, questioning one's gender identity
can begin at a very young age. With that in
mind, we pulled together some literary inspiration
worth passing on to the inquisitive teenager in your
life.

Luna by Julie Anne Peters (Little, Brown; 2004)

For years Liam
secretly transforms himself into Luna each night with the
help of his sister's clothes and makeup. As he yearns to
reveal his nighttime identity, his sister Regan finds
it more difficult to keep Luna a secret with each
passing day. Are Liam's family and friends ready to
accept Luna into their lives? Julie Anne Peters's
well-received novel was a 2004 finalist for the
National Book Award in Young People's Literature.